Small child + Defenseless Animal = I AM SO HACKED OFF!

[MimzMum]

Please pardon me, folks, while I rant for a few minutes.

Just HOW does a mother stand by and ingore that her 2 or 3 year old son is shaking, stomping on and tipping over the carrier in which the most BEAUTIFUL long haired siamese cat is trapped, with eyes that are just pleading with anyone in view, “HELP ME!”

And how come I was so stunned and angry, I just couldn’t get out the words, “CURB YOUR KID FOR GODSSAKE!”

I stood and tried my hardest to think of some way to say to this obviously stupid woman that: 1) Maybe she shouldn’t have the child hold the carrier AT ALL. 2) I am sure kitty had probably just had to endure some indignity at the pet store bathing area, because the two were laughing at his shaved tail and I can imagine it had had a hard enough day as it was. 3) She was totally ignoring every nasty thing this kid was doing to this poor cat and just holding her younger child and waiting for the clerk to come back and finish her transaction. So why couldn’t she have taken kitty in to the car to give him a quiet place to rest while she stood with the children in line?

And even after she left, the kid was still dragging the hapless feline in his carrier into their van and bouncing it off the ground and steps like a fricking suitcase! I have never been so ready to destroy another human being as I was today!

But no, I am too witless to be able to come up with anything clever in even ten minutes’ time…plus I was already stunned that, once again, there are two adorable baby bunnies, a lop and an upright eared one, in one of those blasted tanks and having to share it with a HUGE housefly! I tried to talk to the clerk about it, but he was one of your run-of-the-mill idiots who just gives you a grunt and a blank stare. I was so incensed I didn’t think to ask for the manager.

Besides, I just wanted to THROTTLE that kid…or his mom….OR BOTH. (I secretly hoped the kid would trip the door lock on the carrier and kitty would make a break for it. I’d have taken it home in half a heartbeat.)

To top it all off, when we finally got back home after being in town all day, I find my 12 yo Mack Husky trapped under our front porch and unable to free himself. This is a dog with a severe degenerative bone disease and he’s losing his back legs. It’s also getting harder for him to toilet. I can only imagine the agony he’d been going through from the time he’d got himself stuck and I was so mad at myself for not being there! We literally had to jack up the porch to get him out. We suspect someone we knew had been here today and probably had something to do with it. But he’s not fessing up.

There are sometimes I just HATE people. I love what Walt Whitman said: “I think I could turn and live with animals….” BOY does that ring true for me today!

Okay..rant over…I think. >.< I'm gonna go hug my bunny now.

[RabbitPam]

MM,
That’s just awful. I hope you are relaxing now and snuggling both your bunnies and your lovely dog.
If you know who might have had something to do with your dog’s predicament, I think it would be wise to speak up. (“If this ever happens again, blah blah, consequences.”) He needs you for protection even more now. Please don’t beat yourself up about it though. It’s very likely that he knew to lie down comfortably for most of the time and only got up to get out once he heard you coming.

People in public? I am now getting rather tired of our “be polite no matter what” ingrained behavior. I think, based on the fact that a living being’s life is at stake and you know more than a small child, you have nothing to lose by stepping in. Oh, go ahead an just let ‘er rip! Especially if all you ended up doing was either teaching the kid how to be careful with a carrier, or the mother how to pay attention to the cat as well as her two “charming children”. It’s too late now of course, and let’s hope that there’s another person in their lives that also wants to give that kid a time out (in a cell for 12 years or so. LOL). Would that mother be angry? Of course. She’d probably be 10 times more rude than anyone else. But you’ll never see her again and I agree with you – and frankly I’ve had it. OK, so a better way might have been to quietly ask to help and just taken the carrier from the child and assisted with it by accompanying them to their car, but hindsight is 20/20.
You were shocked, confused and paralyzed with conflicting ire and social graciousness. The moment passed but the anger didn’t. At least you know that the cat isn’t a dummy, and probably took revenge on the kid and mom later that same day. Cat’s are good at that.

[Lion_Lop_Lover]

My friend sent me an article last night from a Nova Scotia newspaper (I’m originally from NS) about a Pit mix dog that was found HANGED in the woods by its neck, left to die. The police say it was obviously intentional, and the dog was left with just enough room to NOT reach the ground.
I bet you anything it was a bunch of stupid teenage boys.

But it’s sickening. Left in the woods hanging by its neck.
People really are horrible.

It reminded me of the endless horrible stories about young preteens hanging cats by their necks with window blind cords and leaving them Sick stuff…

[JK]

It is just horrendous what people do to animals. They should all be shot or tortured the same way they tortured the animal. There I said it. Hope I did not offend anyone. There are no words to describe that mother. I would have probably started yelling at her. Something like that, I would not be able to contain myself. This is why I can’t read these horror stories!!! I get so so upset and have those pictures imprinted in my brain forever!

[Beka27]

sigh… it’s never-ending. for every parent who teaches their child to be respectful to animals and polite in public, there’s one that just does not care. in these situations i respond to be helpful, as if the parent would stop it if she had noticed, but she didn’t. as the kid is kicking around the carrier… “excuse me ma’am, your daughter is kicking the cat carrier.” or “she’s dragging the carrier. i think it may be too heavy for her to lift. can i carry it?” stating the obvious so she can remedy the situation. she’ll either tell the kid to stop. or say “so?” if she says “so” or seems to not care at all, i think that gives you the right to speak up further.

[Sage Cat]

When I was a kid – I had no choice but to be well behaved in public. All of the current kids in my family have no choice but to be well Behaved in public. We also have LOTS of pets in my extended family. I wonder if the 2 have any thing to do with each other.

One of my brothers had friends over. One of the friends small child pulled the tail if my brothers cat. My brother loudly said “NO” to the child. The mother very angrily said to my brother” We don’t say no to her!” My brother laid into this woman & almost threw her out of his house!

I have countless stories like this.

My theory is people like these mother don’t really have any respect for themselves – so how could the teach respect. It’s not just how they treat animals – it is all about respect for other people too!

Yea, I don’t stay quiet any more. So what if they get mad at me.

[MimzMum]

That’s just it, Pam…had I been a little younger, and not as restrained, I’d have hexed the little brat (and his mom) and someone would’ve lost an eye for sure…problem is, that would only wind up reflecting on the cat. It would’ve been beaten, put down or worse, abandoned.
All I could do was whisper a prayer. I was so angry I just wanted to lash out. It didn’t even occur to me to ask them, “Would you like some help getting kitty to your car?” (My guess is it would’ve been turned down anyway…I think the mom was using the cat to keep the boy entertained and make it look like she was ‘teaching’ him ‘responsibility’ by ‘putting him in charge’ of its well being. Poor cat! *growls* )

You all have excellent points of view and I’m glad I posted this, so that I could get perspective. You’re all absolutely right and there is no chance such lapse in another’s judgment will ever escape my comment again. If nothing else, I will have taught the child more than his mom if I just ask him “What a pretty kitty you have, what’s his name? May I see him? Would you like a little help carrying your kitty?”

I do believe that people who torture animals will meet their own personal hell when they cross over, complete with giant renditions of those animals themselves meting out the same indecencies that they once gave freely for their own amusement to that animal.
This little boy has some serious karma coming to him. I just hope he doesn’t grow up to be a psychotic murderer because I missed my moment to step up and insert a better point of view.

[RabbitPam]

No, you didn’t add to his potential as an axe murderer! Being paralyzed into no response is the most common reaction to all kinds of situations for basically very nice people. Frozen in shock is not an expression, it’s a description. You just have a few new options planted in your brain for another day, that’s all.

Realize that you are a loving person who is undoubtedly influencing all sorts of people with your caring point of view about animals. People from all over the globe come here to learn new information, and they hear your voice. You touch many more lives with compassion and righteous indignation than you realize, and it has impact. Someone with a child may be reading this now and realize that a child shouldn’t carry a carry-all, so needs to learn animal care in other ways. You are helping, really. As for that kid, he has many different influences in his young life, and I’ve seen the prodigy of lousy parents get a different life style and values from other, better influences. Children are learning machines; a person who loves and cares for animals might teach him better, and soon. There’s always hope for new generations. Humanity steps forward and slides back one child at a time, but you can find progress eventually.

[MimzMum]

Thanks Pam. ^^ Just when I start taking myself too seriously, this is when I need such a reality check the most. I am glad to be here to communicate with all of you, and you especially seem to know the right thing to say in so many situations.
Thanks so much! *gives you a squeeze*

[bunnytowne]

ooooooo when I was young enuf to beat up children I had a dog and a girl who had been attacked by her dog was at my house we were alone our moms were out somewhere dancing ro some such. she started picking on my dog oh my did I beat the )(*() out of her. she was scared of me after that. I told my mom dont’ let that thing herer again she pulled my dogs and and pinched him. I was furious. she never came back. I told the girl no wonder teh dog bit you y ou teased it  you deserved it well at that age I really wasn’t sure why it attacked her and maybe she that way cuz of it. but I was not going to stand for it. today I go to jail if I knock sense into someone else’s child. it is hard to speak up sometimes being completely stunned into shock by their ignorance.

[bunnytowne]

honestly I think soem people just born that way

[kimberleyanddarren]

i got to about half way down this post and just had to stop reading, i cant deal with stuff like this it makes me cry, i HATE HATE HATE anyone who could even think to be cruel to a defenseless animal stupid #$@!ing arseholes (excuse my french) god i hate them >.<

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